To defend her dad! OK – quit laughing and take a nice, slow, deep breath to read her Tweet:
“…surrounded by enemies and spies catching and perverting every word that falls from my lips or flows from my pen, and inventing where facts fail them.” -Thomas Jefferson’s reflections on Washington, D.C. in a letter to his daughter Martha.
Some things never change, dad!— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 31, 2019
(Just to correct her thoughts about things never changing – some things do, indeed, change … at least with a little surgical intervention. Amirite, Ivanka?)
If you noticed, I did not include “Fun” in today’s title. That’s because a good many of the Twitterverse responses were quite serious – and appropriately so. Consequently, I’m going to honor those rejoinders – but hopefully add some lighter ones, too.
Let’s begin with the actual historical background that prompted Jefferson’s letter in the first place – because it reminds us of a certain someone:
It's interesting Ivanka picked this example because the thing Jefferson's enemies were accusing him of — fathering a child with a slave — was absolutely something he did. 6 times as a matter of fact. Jefferson was bemoaning being called out for something he actually did. https://t.co/ZnvjPLrkjY
— Rachel Joy Larris (@RachelLarris) October 31, 2019
Continuing with the more serious ones …
So, Ivanka, couple things:
a.) Jefferson worked his whole life to ensure the president was not above the law
b.) Jefferson was the first top official to call for the impeachment of a president (Washington) for being too close a foreign nation (when he approved the Jay Treaty).— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 31, 2019
Thomas Jefferson also said this- it's as if he predicted Trump and his crime family: "The government will one day be corrupt and filled with liars, and the people will flock to the one that tells the truth."
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) October 31, 2019
My favorite serious one dealing with his endless “Fake News” and vile attacks on the press:
“When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant.” — Thomas Jefferson
Your father is a tyrant, @IvankaTrump.
— Ryan Knight 🗽 (@ProudResister) October 31, 2019
And Jefferson’s thoughts on nepotism was a favorite topic, but the first one is quite detailed:
I love history too! Here's Thomas Jefferson on nepotism. https://t.co/iuIIcPAaVJ pic.twitter.com/HrE8RNvZOM
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) October 31, 2019
They got pithier:
"The public will never be made to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit… nor can they ever see w/ approbation offices, the disposal of which they entrust to their Presidents for public purposes, divided out as family property"—Thomas Jefferson https://t.co/Pa0aKtZtew
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 31, 2019
But they also got harsher. I think her inappropriate grifting at the G20 Summit sets her up for mocking.
You are the most vapid tool ever to step foot in the White House.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 31, 2019
Does anyone know if Thomas Jefferson and Martha Jefferson Randolph also laundered money for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard?https://t.co/e9L8KWWSHW
— David Hoag (@davehoag) October 31, 2019
Thomas Jefferson also said this:
"When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”
That’s about your dad. https://t.co/oEQnd0Eo63
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) October 31, 2019
You're delusional.
Our Founding Fathers would have put your daddy in the stockades three years ago.
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) October 31, 2019
"You will visit Ivanka won't you?" pic.twitter.com/kn7TQxqYUL
— Rock (@rockhead21) October 31, 2019
But some leavened the harshness with a little lite humor, beginning with Kellyanne Conway’s husband:
Inventing facts? Have you met your father? https://t.co/qFktpwqGTs
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) October 31, 2019
So who is @realDonaldTrump ? The enemies or the spies? Both? We understand the "inventing where facts fail…" part of it well enough. That's your pop. @IvankaTrump https://t.co/IuGa84Diwj
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) October 31, 2019
You're right. It was so wrong of the media to pervert your father's sacred words, such as "grab em by the pussy" and "move on her like a bitch."
— Liddle’ Savage (@littledeekay) October 31, 2019
And when Ivanka’s ridiculous use of Jefferson to try to defend Donnie appeared, it naturally started trending in the Twitterverse. On Halloween, this caused some folks to become worried about Thomas Jefferson’s … current status:
I saw Thomas Jefferson trending and was terrified he might be undead.
— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) October 31, 2019
I saw 'Thomas Jefferson' trending and I thought something happened to him. pic.twitter.com/Y0mOE80dYh
— GK Chesterton Tweets (@GilbertCTweets) October 31, 2019
This made me immediately think of the time Trump raised Frederick Douglass from the dead during his Black History Month speech by talking about him as though he were still alive. I don’t have a Twitter account, but I’d go with his exact words, just substitute Jefferson:
“Thomas Jefferson is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. I’m hearing a lot of great things.”
I got a kick out of this cheeky one that, like Trump, is able to invent facts at whim:
Ben Franklin was a much better President than Thomas Jefferson. He invented electricity
— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) October 31, 2019
But rather than close with another Jefferson quote, particularly in light of the House vote for a formal Impeachment Inquiry yesterday, maybe a more timely one by George Mason will do even better:
"Shall any man be above Justice?…Shall the man who has practised corruption & by that means procured his appointment in the first instance be suffered to escape punishment by repeating his guilt?"—George Mason on impeachment, 1787.
Some things never change! https://t.co/Pa0aKtZtew
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 31, 2019
10 Responses to “Friday: Ivanka’s Tweet Invokes Thomas Jefferson To …”
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Couple of things:
Yeah, it’s posted very early – due to an almost full night of neuropathy pain. Getting a little tired of all the lemonade.
Yeah, it’s physically long – I had to fill the time some way.
But seriously, every Tweet you post contains Ivanka’s Tweet either as a prologue or an epilogue. Is there any way for a non-Twitter poster to delete that repetition?
I know about reading threads in Twitter – but that’s different, where you string the same “author’s” Tweets all together. Any suggestions on how to edit out the repetitions?
Very Interesting, Nameless!
I loved Pavlovitz’ comment!
Du you think Trump may have impregnated any the female slaves Putin bought him?
Boy oh boy – I surely hope that the quote Dean Obeidallah chose to share is accurate. Because that isn’t what I am seeing. But time will tell.
The facts Rachel Joy Larris chose to share stuck in my mind. Perhaps Ivanka’s choice was too close for comfort.
The “You will visit Ivanka won’t you?” is really twisting the knife. Accomplices are not allowed to visit each other in prison … so even if she’s not locked up, visiting privileges will not be allowed her.
As TC says, Pavlovitz was short, sweet, and on the nose.
Altogether a glorious collection.
I am also not a Twitter person (though I certainly approve its recent decision to reject ALL paid political advertising), so my only suggestion would be, instead of embedding the actual tweet, take a screenshot of it, and edit the recurring one out with picture software. I’m so old fashioned I still use Paint … but it could be done even in Paint without much trouble, so there must be tools that make it easy peasy.
I happen to LOVE MS Paint! I think you can tell I enjoy the graphic aspect, and I like Paint because it doesn’t have a lot of confusing Bells & Whistles.
If I need Bells & Whistles, I like Gimp – but only because it probably has everything an amateur like me would need. But it’s not the easiest program to navigate!
Awesome post, Nameless, and hilarious.
I’m still reading and re-reading.
I do hope that your neuropathic pain subsides enough for you to
get it looked at.
Thanks for posting, take care.
Thanks – I truly appreciate your concern.
For better or (more likely) worse I’ve seen my old and new PCP about it. The old sent me to a podiatrist who didn’t help. And I took myself to an orthopedist in a huge group, and he only deals with foot issues. And I’ve gone to my neurologist about it.
Unfortunately between 2 PCPs, a podiatrist, a subspecialist orthopedist and a neurologist – if there’s a resolution to the problem they haven’t found it yet.
I am taking Gabapentin, which seems to help w/ the frequency of attacks – but does nothing for the severity (an 8 or 9 on the 0-10 Pain Scale).
I only know about have experience with muscle pains and arthritis-type pain. Does neuropathy respond to heat or cold? Is it possible to rub anything on the skin outside the affected area? Capsacin (doesn’t work well for me, plus one has to be so careful not to get even an atom near eyes or mouth or other sensitive tissues), mint, arnica, ginger, hemp oil, various aromatherapy oils, are just a few things that have helped someone, somewhere, sometime (though I don’t know about neuropathy with any of them. And you wouldn’t want one with valerian because you’d have Nike all over you, and some of the ingredients it could be with might not be good for him.) Then heating pads, electric or microwaveable – cooling pads kept in a freezer with various degrees of hardness (from gel to buckwheat and points in between) – again, I have no experience with neuropathy so this may all be useless.
Wonderful! BTW, I happen to be reading Dumas Malone’s “Jefferson the Virginian,” the first of his 6 part biography of the man.
Sorry to hear about your neuropathy pain, Nameless, but it gave rise to a wonderful post.
It’s been a while since we heard from Ivanka, and as she’s considered Trump’s follow-up in the Trump dynasty of presidents (her brothers are too obviously stupid) she has to keep herself in the news. So she had someone look for a historic quote befitting the situation and now she’s right up there with her brothers.
George Mason’s quote feels like a bottom line to the overall issue, and thus an ideal conclusion Nameless.
Gabapentin interacts with some drugs to strengthen its work on neuropathic pain (e.g., certain antidepressants). This kind of pain is the area with the most promising research findings on acupuncture working.
Thanks Nameless–I empathize.